Index
Preface vii
Acknowledgements xi
1 Autonomy and artificiality in global networks 1
ALife in context, or, "the return to Darwin" 2
Network bioethics 7
2 The meaning of life part 1: the new biology 14
Evolutionary biology - all about chickens and eggs 14
The metaphor of life as information 16
Biology as ideology - reductionism and determinism 19
Molecular biology - an endgame 23
Sociobiology and eugenics 31
Evolutionary psychology and the "Darwin Wars" 40
3 Artificial Life 53
Information Wants to be Alive! 60
The philosophy and biology of ALife 63
ALife - autonomous agents 66
ALife - non-vitalist vitalism 71
Spaces of dissent 71
The future of ALife - consolidating (digital) naturalism 78
4 CyberLife - Creatures 83
Sim Worlds - ALife and computer games 85
Stirring the primordial soup 85
The Creation part 1 : making worlds 86
The Creation part 2: making life 88
Cain's creation 89
Creatures 91
Playing the games 95
Creatures on the Internet 98
CyberLife - selling ALife 105
CyberLife Research Limited - or "real" ALife 109
5 Network identities 116
Artificial agents 116
HAL 116
Situated and autonomous robots 118
Bots 124
ALife aesthetics 127
Artificial cultures 133
Artificial societies 138
Artificial subjects 143
6 The meaning of life part 2: genomics 145
Artificial life as wetware 145
The species-self 150
Confessions of a justified sinner 150
The self as other 160
The other species 169
7 Evolving feminism in Alife environments 175
Alife-as-we-know-it 175
Natureculture 182
Risk 188
Pengi and the Expressivator 193
Alife-as-it-could-be 198
Autopoiesis and autonomy 198
Einbodying ALife 204
Towards situating ALife 206
8 Beyond the science wars 211
Notes 217
Bibliography 227
Index 243
